Economics of the Global Marine Fishery: Changes between 2004 and 2012

Abstract:

In 2009 the World Bank published a study of the economic performance of the global marine fishery pertaining to the base year 2004. The key finding of this study was that the global fishery in 2004 was economically and biologically highly inefficient. More precisely, the difference between attainable and actual net economic benefits, aptly referred to as the sunken billions, was estimated to be around US$ 50 billion (at 2004 prices) or some 3/5 of the landed value. This assessment has now been updated to the year 2012 and the assessment methodology improved. On the same basis the 2004 results have been reworked. According to these new estimates, there seems to have been a slight improvement in the economics of the global marine fishery from 2004 to 2012. Most of this improvement seems to have taken place in the industrialized part of the world while the fisheries of the less developed part of the world appear to have continued to decline. It should be noted, however, that the overall improvement is relatively small compared to the waste and does not appear to be even statistically significant. Moreover, taking the estimated improvement at face value, at the same rate of improvement, it will take many decades for the global fishery to approach the optimal state.

Description:

Suggested Bibliographic Reference: Challenging New Frontiers in the Global Seafood Sector: Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, July 11-15, 2016. Compiled by Stefani J. Evers and Ann L. Shriver. International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET), Corvallis, 2016.

Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, held July 11-15, 2016 at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Center (AECC), Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.